The Color of Success

1
The Color of Success

• Gilberto Q. Conchas, PhD
• Associate Professor
• Chancellors Fellow
• University of California, Irvine

2
Problems Facing Urban Public Schools

• Low test scores
• Low grades
• Achievement Gap
• High drop-out rates
• Poor attendance
• Unmotivated students
• Burned-out and ineffective teachers
• Dilapidated and unsafe buildings
• Administrative hopelessness
• Politicized and inefficient bureaucracies
• Endless series of failed school reform

3
Ladson-Billings, 2006 AERA Presidential Address

• Taken together, the historic, economic,
  sociopolitical, and moral debt that we have
  amassed toward Black, Brown, Yellow, and Red
  children seems insurmountable, and attempts of
  addressing it seem futile. Indeed, it appears
  like a task for Sisyphus. But as legal scholar
  Derrick Bell (1994) indicated, just because
  something is impossible does not mean it is not
  worth doing.

4
Guiding Research Questions

• Why do some low-income high school students
  achieve success despite urban school inequality?
• How does the structure and culture of urban
  schools mediate school success?
• How do low-income youth experience and perceive
  urban school success?

5
Research Focus

• My work explores the origins of low-income
  students engagement and success in relationship
  to the urban high school context.

6
Purpose of the Study

• To examine how within school processes construct
  success among low-income urban high school
  students.
• To show, from students perspectives, how
  institutional mechanisms impact student
  engagement.
• To show, how the structural and cultural
  dimensions of the small school reform efforts
  matter.

7
Research Says

• Segregation and neglect in a racially
  stratified society (Orfield)
• Inadequate learning environments aesthetically
  unpleasant, ill-equipped, ineffective teachers,
  defiant peer cultures (Anyon Orfield et al.)
• Low-achieving School structure culture low
  teacher expectations, irrelevant curriculum, lack
  of supports systems (Conchas Gandara)
• Family background (Diaz-Salcedo Trueba)

8
Research says

• Oppositional culture and the stigma of acting
  white voluntary versus involuntary (Ogbu)
• Immigrant paradox and downward assimilation
  (Feliciano Portes and Rumbaut, Suarez-Orozco
  Suarez-Orozco)
• Acculturation today, leads to detrimental
  outcomes
• Health
• motivation
• achievement

9
But Many Beating the Odds!

• Impact of school processes (Conchas Gandara
  Mehan Noguera)
• Impact of relationships within schools among
  peers and teachers (Conchas Conchas and
  Rodriguez Stanton-Salazar)
• Impact of these on school engagement (Conchas)

10
Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, The Good High School,
1983

• It seemed easy for us to recite all of the
  problems teachers and students confront and
  create in secondary schools but it seemed
  difficult, even awkward, to find goodness and
  talk about successes.

11
My Research Suggests

• School change is a multi-faceted process with
  technical, cultural, and political dimensions.
• Size is not synonymous with urban school success.
• Structural processes as well as cultural
  dimensions of reform efforts matter, such as
  school culture, teacher beliefs, and
  interpersonal relations

12
Comparative Case Study Methodology

• Answers how and why questions to ascertain
  processes.
• Phenomena takes place within real life contexts.
• Researcher has little or no control over
  phenomena.
• Goal is not to generalize to the whole, but to
  expand upon exiting theoretical propositions.

13
Overview of The Color of Success Case Study

• Mix-Method Case Study
• Phase 1 Observations and document analysis
• Phase 2 Qualitative interviews and focus groups
• Phase 3 Quantitative Attendance, grades, and
  NELS (OLS Models to assess Social Capitol)
• (Phase 4 Compare with Boston small school data)
• 3 Race and Ethnic Groups 26 Latinos, 27 Black,
  and 27 Asian American
• 4 Comparative Structures/Cultures (and then
  compare with 2 in Boston)

14
Baldwin High School

• 1,900 Students in 9-12 Grades
• 65 African American
• 20 Asian American
• 10 Latino
• 5 White
• 18 ELL
• Low Income with a Few Black Middle Class

15
Small Learning Communities

• Advanced Placement
• 15 Black 66 Asian
• 5 Latino 14 White
• Graphics Academy
• 25 Black 56 Asian
• 9 Latino 10 White
• Medical Academy
• 55 Black 32 Asian
• 10 Latino 3 White

16
Race and School Culture

• This school reflects the images of society at
  large. There is limited communication
  across...ethnic lines. And I can see tremendous
  variation. I think there are...programs at this
  school where you have a mix of students where
  communication goes on fine and the friendships
  cross ethnic lines.On the other hand, you have
  other divisions where...you have classes which
  are all of one ethnic group...and kids...are a
  little bit terrorized because they dont know one
  another. English Teacher

17
Variations in Institutional Processes

• General School Pathway
• Weak Structure and Culture
• Latino and Black Youth
• Consistent with Past Research
• Weak Peer Networks
• Low Teacher Expectations
• Weak Relationship Building
• No College Going Culture

18
Strong Structure and Weak Culture

• AP Graphics Academy
• Strong and Competitive College-Going Culture
• Promotes Success
• Replicates Individualism
• High Anxiety and Stress
• Acting White to Succeed
• Loss of Ethnic Identity

19
Strong Structure and Culture

• Medical Academy
• Strong College-Going Culture
• Promotes School Success
• Positive Student Identity
• Pro-School Ideology
• Enhances Race and Ethnic Relations
• Academic Peer Groups
• Model of Success for Urban Youth

20
Variations in Responses

• Medical Academy
• We are like a community, because in the Medical
  Academy they are always telling us to work
  together and more things are going on for us to
  unite. We help each other to fulfill our goals
  in school and go into health. 11th grade

21
AP and Graphics Academy

• Oh my God, me be in regular English? Forget
  that! That does not look good. I want to be
  tagged the best. The other programs are seen as
  easy, thats why Im in Advanced Placement.
  11th grade

22
General Academic Track

• You have an all Black classand if you are in
  therethey take care of their own.We are
  invisible. 10th Grade

23
What I Argue?

• Structural and cultural processes divided
  students by race and distributed opportunities
  among students in a way that reproduced social
  inequities.
• Those students who perceive stronger and
  healthier race and ethnic relations are more
  engaged in school, whereas those who feel more
  intimidated by the racial and ethnic climate
  suffer.
• Institutional support mechanisms helped students
  achieve success, despite their critical
  consciousness of social inequality.

24
Significant Factors and Influences Structural

• Smaller is Best
• Highly Qualified Teachers and Staff
• Rigorous and Relevant Curriculum
• Proper Class Scheduling
• Properly Resources Financial, Space, Materials
• Program Partnerships Parents, Communities, and
  paid labor (internships)
• Replicable Structure
• Sustainable Structure

25
Significant Factors and Influences Cultural

• College-Going Climate
• Supportive Cross-ethnic Community of Learners
• Supportive Climate of Varying Academic Abilities
• Respectful Climate
• Responsible and Supportive Peer Groups
• Positive Teacher Expectations
• Strong Relationship Building

26
Do the Numbers Matter?

• OLS Models to Predict Study Habits of Black,
  Vietnamese, and Mexican American High School
  Students
• 1. Parents Appear to Have SOME Influence, but
  Research Highlights Relationships within Schools
• 2. Peer Groups
• 3. Teacher Expectations

27
Limitations of Small School Success

• Size is not synonymous with urban school success
• Schools Serve Few Students
• NCLB Testing Limits Success
• Access to Some Schools Remain Ambiguous Uneven
  Recruitment Processes Equity and Equality Issues
• Difficult to Replicate Teacher Culture
• Difficult to Replicate School Culture
• Structural Inequality Poverty, Joblessness,
  Health and Nutrition, Race and Class Segregation

28
Beyond the Family, 2010

• How the school context mediates the acquisition
  and potential activation of social capital among
  low-income Asian, Latino, Black, and White youth.
• 60 college students
• 60 high school students
• 60 middle school students
• 500 surveys and narrative analysis
• NELS analysis

29
High Potential Community Colleges Postsecondary
Success

• How the social organization of community
  colleges mediate success among low-income young
  adults.
• 4 Gates identified high potential community
  colleges in CLiPs
• Longitudinal Mix-Method Case Study
• Comparative race/ethnic and gender approach,
  16-26 year olds
• Education, community and work/ labor approach